Preparation for heavy-flavour measurements with ALICE at the LHC Original Research Article

ALICE [ALICE Collaboration, JINST0803 (2008) S08002] will study nucleus–nucleus and proton–proton collisions at the LHC. The main goal of the experiment is to investigate the properties of QCD matter at the extreme energy densities that will be reached in Pb–Pb collisions. Heavy quarks (charm and beauty) are regarded as powerful tools for this study. After briefly reviewing the ALICE heavy-flavour program, we will describe the preparation for the first measurements to be performed with pp collisions.